The Family

The central element in this film is formed by the preparation for and execution of a performance. The performance, a parachute jump, is carried out by an artist (Perrenet) and his girlfriend during the opening of an exhibition. As spectators to the performance, which takes place in the artist’s studio, an art dealer and several friends have been invited. The art dealer enters first, followed by Armand, who looks at some paintings made by Zwartjes; they spout the usual ‘gallery nonsense’. The art dealer appears most interested in the girlfriend. ‘My latest creation’ is how Amand introduces her. The guests who arrive thereafter are introduced in short, independent sections.

Melodrama about a simple woman from Amsterdam who is forced to choose between the depraved father of her children and the love of a kind-hearted sailor.

Playwright and director Nils Wijn brings his relationship issues to the stage. In his play "The Whore, the Virgin, and the Dying Man," he has his girlfriend Tessa appear in revealing lingerie and takes her to a real prostitute for some practical lessons. This is too much for the actress. Their problem turns out to be contagious, as other members of the theater company also get into arguments with their partners.

In a small, unnamed European town the entire population depends upon the local, ailing factory. When American investors arrive, prosperity fever infects the residents.

Who is Patient Number 4, and what does he have to do with the Van Oranje-Nassau's, the Dutch royal family?

When three women with no previous acquaintance kill a male shopkeeper in the middle of the day, the female psychiatrist assigned to the case sets out to understand why.

Film in three parts. A man and a woman, Trix Zwartjes and Lodewijk de Boer (Zwartjes’s regular actors) circle around each other in a house and outside at the water side. They attract and reject each other.

A frustrated artist from the city is seeking solace with a recently widowed farmer. To get closer to the farmer, she does her utmost to approximate his departed wife. But her fertile imagination leads her to go too far.

First full-length experimental feature by filmmaker Zwartjes about an actress, played by Willeke van Ammelrooy, who during the whole film, in continuously changing moods, is busy in her room. Eventually, she is made an offer by telephone. But what offer does the actress get?

Diane and Dora are two prostitutes who begin to rebel against their lot in life. Meanwhile, in another part of town, a murderer is at large.

In a monumental building a group of scientists submit women to obscure experiments in which sexuality and cruelty constantly merge into one another. "Pentimento" is an art-historical term for a hidden image underneath the actual image giving an indication of how the latter evolved to its current state.

Frans Zwartjes' two visions of womanhood in Behind Your Walls have all the febrile frustration associated with his previous work. Flesh looks like crisp paper about to be despoiled, a torpid heat reduces movement to fidgets and hesitations. - MIFF

A strangely-dressed man reaches for some sorbet and then eats it; A playful, expertly-edited excercise from Zwartjes.

Tomasz , a young Polish refugee wanders through Antwerp, looking for the woman who helped him to get his mother through the Iron Curtain. During his search he meets alcoholics, vagrants and other outcasts of the society.

First film by Paul de Nooijer, in collaboration with his artistic father Frans Zwartjes. Moving Stills shows a series of photographs by Françoise de Nooijer, which are joined, by means of editing and colour effects, and turned into a moving picture. The erotic image gets an explosive charge. (filmcommission.nl)

The actual life and the fiction created by a successful pulp author begin to blend together.